The Perfect Vehicle Control Switches
This is for a motorcycle. It can be used for a bicycle also. It has the Dip / Beam, Left/Right/Centre, and horn push button. What may appear missing is the flash beam but it is not necessary. Just switch on the beam light for a short while.
Other lights can be placed somewhere else. These are the essential switches that we need most frequently. All of them can be accessed by a thumb. This is faster and more convenient compared to stalks.
Stalks require a few fingers to turn the stalk and the fingers have to move from the steering wheel. It should take some time. It will be better if switches are placed on the steering wheel. Better still, why not replace the steering wheel with a handlebar?
A handlebar can only turn 90 degrees. A yoke, 180 degrees and become awkward if used for 720 degree turns of normal wheels.
Why should we need more than 90 degrees to control a vehicle? Why need to turn at all? Fighter jets use controls that do not move at all.
Steering wheels need to turn a few times because of limitations on steering technology. With power assistance, there is less need to have so many turns of the wheel in order to steer. Just use more assistance. In fly-by-wire vehicles, there is no need for any movement of the control devices any more. The switches can be placed on the joystick to be controlled by a thumb.
These switches are more advanced than even stalks. Stalks do not have a centering mechanism. Either we rely on the auto cancellation of the turn stalk, or push the stalk in the opposite direction, being careful not to overshoot. I frequently overshoot so instead of cancelling the turn signal, I signal the opposite side. Stalks cannot be equipped with centering mechanism reliably.
This motorcycle switch has the white switch, which switch off the turn slide switches when pressed. This is a very useful feature.
Although joysticks are superior, but drivers are not familiar with them. They are more familiar with turning steering wheels. The turning wheels indicate that actions had been requested and the degree of correction correspond the degrees of the rotation of the wheel. After a few turns, drivers lose track of the degrees of rotation though, so it is best to just limit the turn to 90 degrees, just like a handlebar.
A handlebar restricts the locations where the hands will rest, unlike a round steering wheel. The best solution is just to put the control switches on the steering wheel in adjustable positions.
Restricting the steering wheel turn is possible as shown by Toyota. Just use disproportional steering turn.
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